Pioneering Councils Named To Drive Forward Innovative Integrated Family Support Teams, Wales

Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 25 Aug 2009 - 0:00 PDT

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The three areas chosen to pioneer a new innovative scheme to strengthen support for vulnerable children and families in Wales have been named by the Welsh Assembly Government.

Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council and Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council in a consortia arrangement, and Newport City Council and Wrexham County Borough Council individually have been selected to drive the development of the Integrated Family Support Teams in their areas along with the Local Health Boards for their areas.

The new multi-agency teams, which are unique to Wales, will bring together social workers, family workers, substance misuse professionals, nurses and health visitors, to work directly with families to protect and support vulnerable children.

The powers for the development of the Integrated Family Support Teams are being secured through the Children and Families Measure (Wales). The groundbreaking teams will become operational in spring 2010 with the aim of rolling out across Wales over the next five years.

The three areas will receive up to £600,000 each financial year over the next three years to support the establishment of the new teams.

Deputy Minister for Social Services, Gwenda Thomas AM said: "I was pleased to see the interest and enthusiasm from Local Authorities and Local Health Boards to take part in this pioneering initiative which will support some of the most vulnerable children and families in Wales. I believe that it will improve outcomes for children and families and strengthen training and career opportunities for staff, which will help ensure we maintain and attract high quality staff.

"The teams will help identify families with problems earlier and work intensively with families to make the necessary lifestyle changes in order to keep a child or children at home or to identify earlier those parents who are unable to carry out their parenting roles so that alternative care arrangements can be made.

"The new teams will also be able to work with children and families where children have already been taken into care and with support, look to enabling the child to move back home where it is safe to do so and will better connect children and adult services with a focus on the family.

"The aim is to develop closer working and integration of NHS and council services and overcome silos that can currently exist between some children's and adult services.

"As well as supporting children and families, the new teams will provide supervised training and development for other staff working within the NHS in Wales and local authorities.

"Staff within the new teams will be able to learn new skills from other professionals and the pioneering areas will test new social care workforce roles including the role of a consultant social worker.

"The development of Integrated Family Support Teams will require services to be re-modelled, and we will be learning from the pioneering areas to make real and lasting improvements.

"I know from talking to frontline staff that they are looking forward to the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

"Initially, the teams will focus on supporting families where one or more parent has a substance misuse problem. This will support a range of work which is underway to improve mental health and reduce substance misuse. Often mental health and substance misuse is interlinked and it is therefore important we tackle both issues together."

Health and Social Services Minister Edwina Hart said: "The new teams will have shared responsibility within and across children's and adult's services, and break down boundaries between local government and the NHS to better integrate public services.

"Under the new arrangements, health professionals will be required to have regard to the needs of the whole family when assessing or treating adults.

"I welcome the continued commitment of Local Health Boards to work with their local government partners to improve and enhance the quality, performance and accessibility of integrated health and social care services to improve family health, wellbeing and to break the cycle of disadvantage that can harm these families and can persist for many generations."

"I am pleased that, under the new arrangements, health professionals will be required to have regard to the needs of the whole family when assessing or treating adults.

Dr Brian Gibbons, Minister for Social Justice and Local Government, added: "We know the devastation that drug and alcohol problems bring to many families and the communities they live in.

"Our substance misuse strategy, Working Together to Reduce Harm, recognises that meeting the needs of the children of substance misusing parents requires a whole family approach with different services, including children's and adults' health and social care services, working together.

"The new teams are a way to deliver imaginative, coordinated services and make a step change in meeting the needs of the children of substance misusing parents."

Source
Welsh Assembly Government

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